THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING

THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; Madison Avenue takes some cues from reality TV shows, but not all of it is for real.

By Patricia Lauro

Published: July 30, 2004

AS America's seemingly insatiable appetite for reality television continues, so does Madison Avenue's use of reality-style advertising and promotions as a way to grab consumer's attention.

Levi Strauss & Company, for example, has been running a multimillion-dollar print campaign themed ''A Style for Every Story.'' The ads feature real people who wear Levi's, including a rancher, an aircraft mechanic and a surfer. Levi's also ran a national contest to find real people for a promotional ad that will run in the September issues of some Time Inc. publications.

Yahoo mimicked the reality TV series genre in a June promotion for the best instant message conversation, with online users voting for their favorite. The least popular conversations were fired, à la ''Survivor'' and ''The Apprentice.''

Earlier this year, the New York City Department of Health and the American Legacy Foundation ran antismoking ads that followed a New Yorker as he tried to quit smoking.

While so-called reality advertising and promotion is more noticeable, some say it relates less to following a TV trend than to satisfying a growing consumer demand for authenticity. ''People are so media savvy now,'' said Thomas Hayo, creative director at Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York, the agency that created the Levi's campaign. ''The audience is so aware of advertising as being something that is fabricated by an agency and people with an agenda that you have to be a little more genuine. People are not willing to buy manufactured truth any more.''

Compared with, say, the 1980's, when advertising tended to be idealized and fabricated, he said, today's advertising is more reality based and focused on human insight.

Still, Ron Berger, chief executive for the New York and San Francisco offices of Euro RSCG Worldwide, part of Havas, says reality has always been a part of advertising, although it experiences waves of popularity. He said his agency had used real people effectively in several campaigns, most notably in a Volvo campaign in which people told about how a Volvo had saved their lives.

''Reality TV has shed a brighter spotlight on real people, but real people have always been popular in advertising because they are real,'' Mr. Berger said. ''They just have an honesty and truth about them that often time actors don't have because they're quote 'acting.'''

In fact, it's such a time-tested model in advertising that Rich Roth, a Euro RSCG creative director, speculated that perhaps reality series evolved from advertising. ''If anything, it's the other way around,'' Mr. Roth said. ''TV producers have seen the success of reality advertising.''

The current consumer desire for the genuine article and not the reality TV trend is behind Levi's new campaign, said Amy Gemellaro, a Levi's spokeswoman. She said research showed that consumers view Levi's as a true American icon.

''We're authentic -- it's the heart and soul of Levi's,'' Ms. Gemellaro said. ''It makes sense that we should use real people.''

Reality-based promotional events tied to image advertising are linked not to reality TV, but to a growing need to interact with consumers, said Claire Rosenzweig, president of the Promotion Marketing Association in New York. These promotions have increasingly been getting a larger share of the total marketing dollar, she added.

''Brands are trying all these different ways to reach their consumer or in some cases, find out who their consumer is,'' Ms. Rosenzweig said.

The ultimate goal of agencies is to establish authenticity for their brands, said Neil Powell, president of Powell, which does advertising for brands like Rheingold beer. He said consumers were weary of sales pitches, especially by celebrities whose lives are often detached from everyday lives.

''Everyone knows that those people are being paid a ton of money to say great things about a brand,'' Mr. Powell said. ''It's much more effective when it's sort of a regular Joe.''

Regular Joes are also a lot cheaper and less risky than using celebrities, said Jack Trout, president of Trout & Partners, a marketing firm in Greenwich, Conn. ''The whole celebrity thing has cooled off in advertising because what if the celebrity gets in trouble?'' he said. ''Now companies are saying, 'Maybe I can pull it off with real people.'''

But not everything is what it seems in advertising. Euro RSCG, for instance, is creating a sequel to a popular commercial for Select Comfort mattresses. The original commercial shows a man in his bed, saying that he and his wife could never agree on a mattress. Now that he has Select Comfort -- which allows each side to adjust for comfort -- he will presumably have better luck.

The spot was so popular that people wrote in about it, Mr. Roth said. But while the character was selected for his authenticity and he was not an actor, his story was not real. It was scripted by the ad agency.

''We tried to capture that spontaneous feeling of reality -- to capture things that don't feel scripted, whether they are or not,'' Mr. Roth said.

Photo: Bartle Bogle Hegarty created the Levi's print advertising campaign ''A Style for Every Story'' using real people like a rancher and a surfer.